


"the day"

by kindergart_ren



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Competition, First Person, Kinda?, Mystery, Open ended, event, i still don't know how to tag god dammit, nct - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:14:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24726562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kindergart_ren/pseuds/kindergart_ren
Summary: “the day”  [proper noun]Three days set aside every year to host an event created by aristocrats. Participated only by the civilians of Aldica over 15 years of age. No one has a say to if they want to participate or not. It lowers the atmosphere to make people feel miserable and rearranges the city to be in a broken down state.   ****People say that some enter and leave the event completely fine but some enter and leave let’s say.. not the same…
Kudos: 1





	"the day"

**Author's Note:**

> This story is completely based off of a dream I had that really intrigued me. I barely remember the dream but this story is basically what happened. I feel like writing based on your dreams is a really cool idea so I might do some more of this.

Voices shouting, ground splitting, columns crashing down, people are running from the rearrangement of our living area. It’s here, it’s the dreaded day, the unspeakable day, the day so taboo that its name is “the day”.

My parents tell me that “the day” is going to be easy and it was what needs to happen. I don’t believe them. I’m scared. I don’t want to do it. “The day” is a yearly celebration, if you can even call it a celebration, where every human in Aldica over 15 years old participates in an event to keep their freedoms and consciousness. Anyone under 15 is forced to live through the low atmosphere, the fear that their loved ones aren’t coming back and the dread that it’s their turn soon. I especially dreaded the year I was legible for the event, some dumbasses at my school were even excited for it, wanted to participate for the thrill, they disgust me, they’re part of the reason we’re still doing this. No one is allowed to disclose any information about the event except for your parents teaching you about the event. There are chips in your temple that keep track of if you disclose any information and tells authorities once you do. Everyone just goes along with it because anything is better than losing your freedoms and consciousness because that just turns you into an empty shell of yourself. 

I’m scared of it. If I don’t go I’ll lose my consciousness but if I fail the event I’ll lose it as well. I made up my mind. I’ll stall starting the event for as long as I can without consequences, I think that’ll be at around 11 pm tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’ll wander around the transformed town. Where can I go first? Maybe my favourite store across the town...

The environment is “turned” to dark during “the day”. It sucks the happiness and motivation out of everyone and it’s just completely miserable. During this time period, there’s always fog up in the sky, too low to be clouds but too high to be normal fog. The ground is covered in dark ocean blue water, broken concrete and cracked dirt roads. There are giant concrete columns extending up into the fog and it feels like we’re at the bottom of a huge bridge. 

Getting to the store, I walk into a comfort store. They sell mattresses, stuffed animals and anything that could be comfort related. I saw an aristocrat family buying giant stuffed animals in the store and quite obviously pretending to be an Aldican, saying that they already completed “the day” and now they can go have fun for the next two days. Complete bullshit, you’re not allowed to talk about “the day” in any way and the low atmosphere makes everything “fun” miserable. Why are they even here, they live in the aristocrat neighbourhood with everything they need and spend their days planning “the day” for the common citizens and making fun of us. They’re probably just here to make fun and mock us. 

Disgusted, I went to visit my friend’s dorm room. Sitting for hours miserable is better with a friend instead of alone. Arriving at campus and locating my friend, Doyoung’s room I sneak in and turn around to find that my seven friends, Doyoung, Mark, Haechan, Renjun, Jaemin, Chenle and Jisung were already hanging out quietly together. 

The dorm room was a tiny one-person rectangular room that had dark blue walls and a beat-up dark oak dresser and desk. Looking around the room, I could see that everyone around the room except for Chenle and Jisung, who were too young, and Jaemin, who was the same age as me, had the green light lighting up on their temples saying that they’ve already completed the event. I silently acknowledge their green lights and they acknowledged how mine was red. This is weird, Haechan and Renjun seem off.. even considering the atmosphere. It seems Jisung had picked up on this fact but the rest of the group seem to have not noticed. 

I asked Jaemin if he wanted to go to the library together tomorrow. It was a way of asking if he wanted to complete the event at the same time without truly breaking the law considering we didn’t outright talk about “the day”. He agreed and it looks like he had the same concerns as I had about this whole “the day” event but of course, we couldn’t disclose it to each other so I don’t think we’ll ever know. The whole group just sat in silence, fidgeting with their hands or looking up around the room. We all highly enjoy each other’s company but it was hard to feel anything but sadness and an underlying feeling of doom right now so we all chose to not say anything. 

We all stayed at Doyoung’s dorm until the 12 am curfew. What most Aldican citizens don’t know is that all restrictions imposed onto us are released after curfew. Freedom of speech, no atmosphere, no bugs and many more restrictions get lifted from 12 am to 5 am. I guess it’s too much money and work for the aristocrats to be running this whole simulation 24/7. I took Jaemin to my secret spot, a hidden sheltered crack one of the fallen concrete column outside of the barriers of the designated living area. The force field nearby has been weakened and can be easily breached. The whole night was occupied with us enjoying watching the stars and talking about how we felt about “the day” and why we haven’t done the event yet. It turns out that his reasons are a lot different than mine but still strangely similar. I guess it’s hard to have contrastingly different opinions on what was essentially doomsday. 

We stayed the night in the breach because it’s impossible to get back to our houses now as the curfew was in full force. The next day, we joined the group in the park to continue our previous day’s activity, sitting in silence. This time it felt different, almost like it was a silent goodbye. I don’t know why but I have a feeling this might be the last time I’ll be seeing any of them.  
Jaemin stood up at 10:49. He told me we got to go and told the others he’ll see them tomorrow. I stood up and followed Jaemin, not before turning around and trying to say possibly my last words to the group. Nothing came out except for a whispered goodbye before I turned around and ran hoping if I never say something that indicates closure it will never happen. 

Catching up with Jaemin we reach the gate right as the clock designed for this event strikes 11 pm. The gate opens and shines with such a bright light it was impossible to see what was beyond it without going through it first. I hug Jaemin as tightly as I can and watch everyone around me enter first. As I feel myself being pushed in by the guards behind me I suddenly understand the real purpose of “the day”, like someone injected the memories into my head and my stomach starts to sink. This isn’t good. 

Just like the footnote at the bottom of the page of the dictionary containing the only written documentation of “the day” said, some people leave the event not the same… Almost like they aren’t even the same person...


End file.
